AIC's 52nd Annual Meeting

Within the past ten years, dye-sublimation prints made with ChromaLuxe specially-coated aluminum panels have become increasingly used by photographers and artists for a number of compelling reasons:

1. The highly abrasion-resistant surfaces of ChromaLuxe prints allows the prints to be safely displayed in gallery and museum settings without the need for framing with glass or acrylic sheets.
2. The glossy and semigloss versions of ChromaLuxe prints provide the highest d-max (resulting in rich, deep colors and blacks) of any current color print process, providing a “brilliance” that is unmatched by most other processes. Many photographers find this to be very appealing – reminiscent of ferrotyped high-gloss fiber-base silver-gelatin prints of the past, and also of unframed Cibachrome silver dye-bleach prints made with high-gloss polyester base material (as opposed to Cibachrome RC materials).
3. ChromaLuxe prints are available in sizes up to 48 x 96 inches (122 x 244 cm), and the lightweight aluminum prints are easy to hang and do not require traditional mounting or framing for display.
4. Because of the investment and space required for the large heat press and CNC router (to smoothly cut ChromaLuxe aluminum panels to size) that are required in order to make large prints, in almost every case photographers work with printmaking studios to produce their ChromaLuxe prints.
5. For these reasons, many photographers have come to feel that ChromaLuxe prints provide a more affordable, visually more stunning and, longer lasting alternative to making large, chromogenic prints of much lower light-stability that have been face-mounted to acrylic sheet using silicone or pressure-sensitive adhesives.

ChromaLuxe is based in Louisville, Kentucky and its manufacturing facilities are located there. https://www.chromaluxe.com

The company does not produce dye-sublimation inks; instead, the inks used to make ChromaLuxe prints are supplied by others. The choice of inks can result in significant variability in the light stability and dark-storage permanence of the resulting prints.

A number of different dye-sublimation inksets have used to produce ChromaLuxe prints. Suppliers include Epson, Sawgrass, Mutoh, Mimaki, Kilan Digital, Sensient, and others (including “hybrid” inksets put together by certain printmaking studios which are composed of combinations of inks from different suppliers). Most are 4-color CMYK inksets, but some are 6-color or even 8-color (with dilute CM and gray inks) to provide smoother tonal transitions and freedom from “noise” in the darker transition tones when viewed at close range.

It should be noted that fabric printing (clothing, sports apparel, upholstery, commercial “soft signage” printed on fabrics for backlits, etc.) is by far the most important market segment for dye-sublimation printing, and this has been the focus of sublimation ink research and development – and not for hard surface printing applications such as ChromaLuxe.

Among the fine-art photographers currently using the ChromaLuxe process are Cindy Sherman, beginning with her contributions to the five-woman Group Exhibition at the Spruth Magers Gallery in Berlin which opened on September 16, 2015; Nan Goldin, who is well-known for her earlier Cibachrome prints; Sarah VanDerBeek; Robert Farber; and many other photographers. The ChromaLuxe process is especially popular among commercial, landscape, portrait, and wedding photographers.

ChromaLuxe dye-sublimation prints are made using a two-step process, with the image first being printed with a large-format inkjet printer on “transfer paper” (from a number of different suppliers) and then placed in contact with a ChromaLuxe panel in a heat press for three or four minutes, usually at a temperature between 350°F and 400°F (177°C and 205°C). The sublimation dyes go through a vapor phase during their transfer to a ChromaLuxe panel. After removal from the heat press, the transfer paper is peeled off, and at that point the print is finished.

ChromaLuxe is a true dye-sublimation print process, and as such is fundamentally different from the small-format dye-thermal-dye-transfer (D2T2) process used by Kodak, Sony, DNP, and other suppliers which have been commonly, and incorrectly, referred to as “Dye-Sub” prints.

This presentation explores both the light-stability and complex dark storage behavior of sublimation-inks printed on different types of ChromaLuxe panels. Results from a previously unpublished series of test conducted by Wilhelm Imaging Research in a self-funded research project over a four-year period at 40°C (104°F) and 50°C (122°F) and 50% RH will be described. Test results at higher temperatures will also be shown, and application of the multi-temperature predictive Arrhenius fading and yellowing methodology will be discussed.

The complex dark-storage behavior of ChromaLuxe prints has not been observed by Wilhelm Imaging Research with any prior color photographic process tested during the past 52 years:

“The Wilhelm Analog and Digital Color Print Materials Reference Collection – 1971-2023” http://www.wilhelm-research.com/WIR_Reference_Collection/The_Wilhelm_Analog_and_Digital_Color_Print_Materials_Reference_Collection_1971_to_2023_(2023-06-12_v23).pdf

Although Wilhelm Imaging Research has published light stability for ChromaLuxe prints made with two different dye-sublimation inksets, to date WIR has refrained from publishing any dark-storage predictions for ChromaLuxe prints.